Shares of Axis Bank declined 0.44 per cent on BSE per cent even as the Reserve Bank has allowed the private lender to raise foreign shareholding to up to 62 per cent, from the earlier limit of 49 per cent.

For many years, most of the JVs in the auto sector involved transfer of technology from the global partner to the Indian one. While some of these marriages were extremely successful - Maruti and Suzuki's in particular - others were not.

As the sector expands, some of the work is sub-contracted out to small factories operating on paper-thin margins, where poor contract workers often have little or no access to safety equipment or health benefits.

In what was one of the most challenging years, adverse exchange rates, after the rupee went on a downward spiral against dollar; higher input costs and fuel prices; and government hiking excise duty on sports utility vehicles (SUVs) compounded problems for automobile companies.

Maruti Suzuki India and two-wheeler major Hero MotoCorp have declared a holiday at their plants on Thursday following a strike call by workers unions' in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt in support of the two-day stir called by central trade unions.

Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union, the workers' body at the Gurgaon factory of Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), said it will try to rally support of other unions in the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt against dismissal of Manesar plant workers.

The Gurgaon Police lodges an FIR against about 60 workers, including union leaders at Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant, where one person was killed in a clash between workers and the managerial staff.